Have You Noticed The BIG 4 Dominating the SERPS Suddenly???
Do you think the shift is a result of a Google conspiracy, or because the big 4 have a constant change and update of information? With all new listings and status updated, is there an unfair advantge, or simply a case of information overload?
FTC Investigates Google for Unfair Business Practices- Anti-Trust Claims. But the U.S is not the only country questioning Google's search results. Europe, Argentina, India and South Korea are all doing similar investigations.
The complaint is that Google unfairly has their own companies and their biggie advertisers come up first above all other searches.
In the real estate space we have noticed this as well. It is just too much of a coincidence that suddenly the real estate big 4 take the top 4 spots on Google SERPS for geo term + homes for sale.
While I have ALWAYS been a proponant of NOT spending a lot of time or money to dominate city term + homes for sale since that is a prospect that if pretty far out in the buying process and sellers don't perform that search I also could look at any homes for sale search in mid-size to small towns and tell you that you can get spots #1, #2, and #3 on the SERPS and kick out Realtor.com, Zillow.com and Trulia.com. Homes.com- tougher to beat.
But just three weeks ago we noticed the big shift. The big 4 are now at the top of almost all the city term + homes for sale. Their optimization has not changed, at least not what we can see through SEO exploration tools. What does fit is the allegations many small companies are making against Google that they favor their bigger advertisers.
Of course there is a ton of supposition out there from Google really aiming to make us all pay for PPC to their favoring of Brand. We know for sure they have patents on algos for brand recognition. This is why I have always said you have to develop your brand in order to survive the future on SERPS.
The New York Times reported that the FTC is recommending the U.S government sue Google over the anti-trust as their investigation is nearing a close.
Google claims that their algo shifts are for a better user experience but we disagree as do many other businesses. We disagree because the actual user experience is MUCH BETTER on small agent owned websites than the big 4. We get complaints on a weekly basis from consumers who don't like the ads on Trulia, the inaccurate data on Zillow, the confusion on Realtor.com, etc. When they go to a great agent owned search site, like a Market Leader site set up properly for user experience, the users stay, engage and turn into customers.
This has not just effected the real estate space but all other competitive spaces. The health insurance industry is another one where the big boys suddenly knocked out their smaller competitors. Eatna.com now is the top spot for health insurance when for years healthinsurancefinders.com was on the top.
The Panda, Penguin and Farmer updates ALL moved big brands above the smaller companies even when the smaller companies did a much better job of optimizing and had better content.
The accusations continue with pretty hard evidence to support them that Google advertisers pay high bid rates for exact match keyword phrases. These businesses are doing all the work to get the best keywords in their PPC campaigns and once it is perfected Google hands those terms off to the big brands especially in the guise of doing algo updates during holiday seasons. The big brand stores are showing up all over the place while the small business websites are being crushed. Small business owners who spend about $300 per month on pay per click ads are seeing their SERPS, ad positions and sites evaporate.
Google's answer is always: "we are trying to clean up the Web and eliminate spam and weak content."
Another Google comment is :
“The internet is fast becoming a ‘cesspool’ where false information thrives,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said yesterday. Speaking with an audience of magazine executives visiting the Google campus here as part of their annual industry conference, he said their brands were increasingly important signals that content can be trusted.”
“Brands are the solution, not the problem,” Mr. Schmidt said. “Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.”
“Brand affinity is clearly hard wired,” he said. “It is so fundamental to human existence that it’s not going away. It must have a genetic component.
The problem is that most of the big players don't have great content and the smaller company sites do. Have you checked your SERPS lately? Has you been hi-jacked?
This is why super long tail blogging and optimizing your site for very specific niches is the only way that you can play on Google's playground. But the good news is, you will get fewer leads but they will be higher qualified leads, in fact, they will actually be customers who are ready to do business with you and chose you because of the connection you made with them online.
From a personal opinion I don't want huge law suits against Google and I don't want Google to conform to a ton of regulations that always have unintended consequences. Google is not the only game in town but they do still have the largest market share of search. They can do what they want to with their company. It is not up to me or the government to tell them what to do or how to do it. However, they must be honest in their business dealings. That is a moral obligation. There are consequences when that is not adhered to.
Nestor Gasset and Katerina Gasset- Realtors®, CIPS, ABR, SFR, GRI, REOS
International Properties & Investments LLCCall us today at 561-753-0135 to get your house sold.
Comments (2)Subscribe to CommentsComment